Microsoft’s sprawling set of software tools were experiencing widespread outages on Thursday, leaving businesses and workers without crucial utilities for hours.
The outage began early Thursday afternoon, as workers and offices around the world began reporting issues with a range of Microsoft 365’s tools and apps, including email and chat software. The problems appeared to be persisting through Thursday night.
Between 12:15 p.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern, the outage tracker Downdetector showed that more than 130,000 users were experiencing problems with Microsoft Outlook, the workplace messaging app Microsoft Teams, the A.I. assistant Microsoft Copilot and the Microsoft Store.
In an update posted on social media around 5 p.m., Microsoft said it was “opening all available pathways to restore service, as our actions taken thus far have not provided the anticipated relief.”
But after posting more updates, Microsoft said at 10:13 p.m. that its changes were “not taking as expected.”
The outage affected software used by hundreds of millions of users, impairing corporate offices, government agencies and individuals who rely on the company’s suite of services to send emails, draft letters, conduct virtual meetings and many other daily functions.
“It shows how reliant we are on these cloud systems,” said Dr. Timothy Wood, a professor of computer science at George Washington University.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado said jail officials could not receive emails to process bond payments for detained individuals because of the outage. A hospital system in Toronto, Unity Health, said in a statement that its staff members were having trouble sending and receiving email, and asked patients to call instead to arrange appointments. Pennsylvania State University described how Microsoft’s services, such as its planner and A.I. agents, were impaired by the outage.
Microsoft had said that part of its infrastructure was “experiencing elevated load across multiple regions.”
The company later said that it had begun redistributing traffic across its broader worldwide infrastructure to help balance the load and that it was restarting affected servers.
The outage prompted waves of frustration, anger — and glee. On social media and Reddit, some embraced the system shortage, which allowed them to step away from work, while others expressed concern over how they might be able to work in the future.
Mr. Wood said the outage might have stemmed from a botched software update, problems with various servers or a system that checks the servers’ health.
Microsoft’s servers could be functioning properly, but the system responsible for checking on their maintenance could be malfunctioning, Mr. Wood said.
“The thermometer is broken,” he said, “and anyone you test looks like they have a fever.”
